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October 27, 2015
Why I Don’t Want You to Buy My Book (From Me)
“I want to buy your book, but I want to do in a way where you’ll get the most money. Should I buy it from you?”I love this question. It’s one of I’ve had several times over the years from well-meaning ...
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June 18, 2015On Buttery Butter, Compress to Impress, Less Is More, Etc.
To indicate her displeasure with overwritten sentences, my grandmother used the phrase "buttery butter." What she meant by it was this: if you write "butter" it’s clear already what you’re talking ...
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March 14, 2014
The Reading Rulebook
I used to go to a lot of public readings of poetry and fiction. Then I had kids, and rarely went, but recently, due to changing circumstances, I've been out to a few more, and what hasn't changed are ...
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April 19, 2014
Truth Is...
I’ve been thinking about the difference between facts and details, how so many of us cling to something that isn’t quite working in our poems because it’s real, the way it actually happened. Changing ...
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November 04, 2015On Writing Violence
Like all writers, I’m often asked what my writing is about. Especially with regards to my recently published collection of stories, Debris, and the novel that I am revising for publication next year ...
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October 15, 2019"We Wanted to See Just How Nuts People Could Get" Sandra Kasturi on ChiZine's Hilarious "War on Christmas" Story Anthology
Maybe you're the person who can hardly wait until Halloween has passed before pulling out the winter holiday decorations — the person who is first in line for the first tree that's been chopped down, ...
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October 10, 2024Saad T. Farooqi Grasps a Sliver of Hope in the Unique Dystopian Landscape of White World
Inspired by lived experiences, and the geopolitical issues that have gripped the countries that he's lived in, Saad T. Farooqi has always had a desire to write dystopian stories that speak to the heart ...
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October 08, 2015
How to Make a Book Soundtrack
I’ve always thought that if I ever make a movie, choosing the soundtrack would be one of the things I would be most excited to do.So I figured why not do the same for a book?Even though I’m not big ...
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December 06, 2021December Gratitude: Check Out 5 of Our Favourite Writer-in-Residence Posts from 2021
This month, as the year winds down, we'll be looking back and highlighting some of our favourite pieces from Open Book this year. Our writer-in-residence posts, our author interviews, our book excerpts, ...
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December 01, 2015Eighty Feet Without a Net - Conversations with John Irving
About a year ago I got an email that I had to read about twelve times over before it really settled in. That email was from Janet Turnbull Irving, the wife and agent of one of the most famous literary ...